Relief agency 'cannot guarantee safety' of Mon refugees returning to Burma
(The Nation - August 1994)

Mon relief officials can offer no quarantees for the safety of refugees who
return from Thailand to Halockhani camp in Burma to get food supplies
blockaded by the Border Patrol Police (BPP), according to a statement released yesterday
by the Mon National Relief Committee (MNRC).

The Kanchanaburi-based 9th Infantry Division reportedly gave the order to
block distribution of rice to 6,000 Mon refugees on Wednesday, after it rejected
five "requests" sough by the fefugees in exchange for returning to Halockhani
voluntarily. The refugees were due to receive their bi-weekly supply of rice
from the camp rice storage yesterday. The imposition of the blockade will mean
they have little to eat apart from bamboo shoots collected in the forest.
"The MNRC cannot make any guarantee for the safety of any refugees who return
to Halockhani camp [because] they can no longer tolerate hunger." the
statement said.

 

The refugees are taking shelter at the Ban Ton Yang border
checkpoint - also know as New Halockhani - near Sangkhaburi in Kanchanaburi
Province following a raid on Halockhani by Burmese troops last month.
The BPP has now completely cut off the camp to all visitors - including
doctors, Mon relief officials and officials - so it is not know whether any
refugees have returned to Halockhini. The BPP based in Sangkhaburi has so far
declined to comment. The MNRC also reported yesterday that three more
truckloads containing 400-500 Burmese illegal immigrants were sent to
Halockhani yesterday for deportation. It is not clear what they will eat,
because they are usually given food from the rice warehouse now being
blockaded by the BPP.

MNRC Chairman Phra Wangsa Pala was allowed to visit the border checkpoint on
Monday and Tuesday in order to negotiate a voluntary return to Halockhani by
the refugees. "In the meeting, we adopted the following five point and
informed
the 9th Division through the Thai Border Patrol Police." the statement noted.
"The Army rejected the proposed points.

· The statement lists the five requests in a public appeal to the Thai
government to take responsibility for the refugees. They include:
· A lifting of the blockade on the camp and a promise not to use force or
pressure on the Mon refugees to return, because the MNRC was ready to negotiate
the process of repatriation with Thai authorities;
· The signing of an agreement at government level to ensure there will not be
any trouble for the Mon refugees in the future from the Burmese government (the
9th Division claims that the local Burmese military commander at nearby Three
Pagodas Pass Has promised not to attack the refugees);
· Permission for international aid agencies to provide assistance to the
refugees after they return to Halockhani until the situation allows them go
home safety;
· The relocation of Mon refugees from Palai Thumpai (the section of Halockhani
that bore the brunt of the Burmese attack last month) to a safe place since
their houses were burned down:
· The opening of an office run by an international agency in Halockhani
camp to monitor the situation after the refugees have returned.

Border sources also said yesterday that permission to enter the camp had
finally been granted to a fact-finding team from the US House of
Representatives. But the permission arrived two days after they visited
Sangkha Buri, where they met MNRC officials. The fact-finding team, composed of
embassy officials and congressional staff, said reports would be filed to the US
Stated Department and US house Foreign affairs Committee.

However, the staff members said they were not specifically carrying out
research for the Foreign Operations Act, a US law recently passed that would
cut off aid to the Thai military if Thailand was seen to be blocking support
for Burmese pro-democracy activists, exiles or refugees. The law was sponsored
by the US House Appropriations Committee, they said.

AFP reports: US government officials have abandoned a fact-finding mission to
New Halockhani refugee camp following a two-day delay for permission to enter,
a US official said yesterday. "I undoubtedly intend to return," the official,
who asked not to be identified by name. "This is still an active problem."
On Thursday afternoon, Thai Army officials said the US mission to
Kanchanaburi province had completed a visit to some 3,800 Mon who have

been blockaded there since August 10.

But the US official said yesterday that Thai permission had been delayed two
days, forcing the team to return to the Bangkok for meetings with
representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Two members of the group, senior staff of Congressmen, were to return to the
US capital, he said. "There is a great deal of concern in Washington about
this," he said. "Basically, [the refugees] will be running out of food
today or tomorrow. I would be pretty desperate if were them."

Thai Border Patrol Police sources have said the military does not want the
blockade at Sangkha Buri to become an international human rights issue.
On Wednesday, Lt Gen Anusorn Krisnasernee, the Thai Supreme Command
spokesman, said that foreigners would "look upon the Thai military as inhuman" for its
blockade. "But since it is government policy not to accept any more refugees, the Thai
military has to implement the policy," he said.

Anusorn has said that more than 2,000 refugees had already returned
voluntarily to the refugee area on the Burmese side of the border, following
the Thai blockade.  The US team, which met UNHCR official of the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees, predicted hundreds of other would follow in the next few days.